USA > Georgia > Fulton County > Atlanta > History of Atlanta, Georgia : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 29
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Shortly after Mr. Calhoun's allies had become securely seated in control of
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the Central Railroad, they developed lines of policy and action which he deemed inimical to the great body of stockholders. As directors of the con- pany, he and his brother felt compelled to resist these measures, and did so successfully. This, however, antagonized the other members of the syndicate. The syndicate having determined to increase its holdings of Central Railroad stocks to forty thousand shares, Mr. Calhoun, in the summer of 1887, induced Mr. John H. Inman, Mr. James Swann and the strong banking house of Kess- ler & Company to enter the syndicate and purchase a block of the stock. In order to capitalize the stock of the syndicate, which had increased greatly in value, it was about this time, determined to form a stock company which should own this forty thousand shares of Central Railroad stock, and should issue to the members of the syndicate its own stocks and bonds in payment therefor. This plan had been suggested by Mr. Calhoun early in 1887, but was not then acted on. It was consummated about the Ist of December, 1887. and a company known as the Georgia Company became the owner of the shares of stock of the Central Railroad owned by the syndicate.
After the successful termination of the Terminal contest of 1886 Mr. Cal- houn had ceased to have anything further to do with with the policy of its management. He had foreseen that the purchase of the stock of the Rich- mond and Danville Railroad for so high a price, would weaken the manage- ment paying it, while strengthening the selling party who were its owners, and thus made a large amount of money by its sale. The accuracy of his judg- ment was entirely vindicated. At the election of the Terminal Company, held in the fall of 1887, it became evident that the Richmond and Danville party of ISS6 had regained its power, and those of the Terminal side in 1886, who re- mained in office, did so only by sufferance. As has been said, Mr. Rice, Mr. Lehman and Mr. Sully, who were of the Terminal party of 1886, were members of the Georgia Company. They determined to make a fight to recover their lost supremacy. In March, 1888, securing the co-operation of Mr. Hollins and his immediate associates in the Georgia Company, they commenced the fight for the control of the Terminal Company under the leadership of a com- mittee of their number known as the "Clark Libby committee." Mr. John H. Inman becoming shortly thereafter president of the Terminal Company. these gentlemen continued their fight, and sought to defeat Mr. Inman's re- election as president. Mr. Inman and his principal opponents being thus members of the Georgia Company, the antagonism engendered by this contest, which be- came very bitter, produced a breach between the different members of that company. Mr. Calhoun and his brother sided with Mr. Inman and became his active supporters. Much of the work of the campaign was done by Mr. Cal- houn. Its result was the overwhelming victory of the Inman party, Mr. In- man being re-elected president, and Mr. John C. Calhoun being elected a member of the board of directors.
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The friction thus produced in the Georgia Company continued during the spring and summer of 1888. It became evident to Mr. Calhoun that either one party or the other must retire from the Georgia Company. The Termi- nal Company had, early in 1887, effected arrangements giving them control of the East Tenessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway, and was in full alliance with that system. The time seemed propitious for bringing about that alliance be- tween the railroad systems of the Southeastern States which he had been la- boring to effect. To this end he devised a plan which would induce the op- posing element in the Georgia Company to sell their stock, and proposed that the Terminal Company should become the purchaser of all the stock in the Georgia Company. The Terminal Company acceded to the proposition, and the negotiation with the antagonistic element of the Georgia Company being conducted on the lines mapped out by Mr. Calhoun, resulted in their selling their stock. The Terminal Company then purchased the entire stock of the Georgia Company, and the alliance of the Southeastern railroad system was accomplished.
The public who had seen Mr. Calhoun successful in both of the contests in the Terminal Company and in the Central Railroad movement, and who had seen those who came into power with him first defeated in the Terminal Company, and lastly lose all place in the Georgia Central system, were not slow in according to him high praise, and in recognizing the important part he had played. The newspapers throughout the country complimented his work. Without multiplying quotations the attention of the reader is called to the fol- lowing from a leading financial paper :
" The honor of carrying through the great deal by which the Richmond Terminal was ena- bled to purchase the Georgia Central, is due to Mr. Pat. Calhoun. Mr. Calhoun is a gentle- man of conciliatory disposition, who is thoroughly conversant with the interests of the South, and fully impressed with the necessity of harmony between the railroads of that section. He is but thirty-five tin fact only thirty-two years of age, and looks even younger. Although the grandson of the great Calhoun, his own great ability, although obscured by an unusual degree of modesty, needs no luster derivable from the name of his illustrious ancestor, but asserts itself most forcibly in meeting the many drafts which are made upon it by Southern railroad men."
No sooner was the accomplishment of this great movement announced, than rival railroads and interested parties began a bitter war upon the railroad alli- ance. The Southern States were flooded with circulars denouncing it as a gigantic monopoly, dangerous to the public good. A rival railroad, under the cover of certain minority stockholders of East Tennessee, Virginia and Geor- gia Railway, began proceedings in the courts of Tennessee to drive the East Tennessee system from this alliance. The Legislatures of Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina met within a few weeks, and so much had the public mind been agitated by all sorts of runrors and statements, proceeding from these sources, that legislation of a most radical character was introduced into each.
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At this crisis Mr. Calhoun returned to Georgia, and as the representative of the allied roads asked to be heard before the Legislative committee, to whom had been referred the principal of the measures pending before the Georgia Leg- islature-namely, the Olive bill, which proposed to forfeit the charters of all of the railroads which were in the alliance, and confiscate the stock of all stock- holders who had acquiesced in its formation. In an elaborate and powerful speech in which he discussed at length the railroad problems of the day, he demonstrated the illegality and impolicy of this hostile legislation, and pointed out how this great alliance of Southern roads would conduce, not only to cheapen transportation and destroy discrimination and diversion of commerce from its natural channels, but to build up and develop the South, and attract the freight and business of the great West to Southern ports and Southern markets, while the uncombined railroad systems tended to drain the South and debar her from advantageous commerce with the West. Speaking of the effect of such an alliance in cheapening transportation and its inability to increase the cost, he said :
"This combination of roads, or rather, as we should always term it, this alliance between the roads. will be productive of most positive good to the State. It will not destroy, but pro- mote legitimate competition. The railroad managers on every one of these properties will be actively competing with each other to give the public the best service. Every one of these rail- roads will want to make the best possible showing to their stockholders, and the Terminal Company, mark you, is nothing but a stockholder. Each company will vie with the other in the effort to put its railroad track in the best condition ; each will strive for the best equip- ment, the best rolling stock with which to handle its business. The reputation of every r.ul- road manager will depend upon the cheapness with which he conducts his business and the efficiency of the service his railroad renders to the public. Now, when you destroy the post- bility of raising rates by combination, you destroy the essential element of monopoly in ruil-
road alliances. . Every railway in this country in some respects is a monopoly, because it carries and exclusively controls the largest part of the commerce along its line ; but every railroad combination lacks the essential element of a monopoly, because it cannot enhance th. . price of the service it renders. There, sir, is the fundamental difference between the great railroad alliances and the trusts of to-day. Analyze what monopoly is. It is a gathering to- gether for the purpose of enhancing the price of a commodity that a man would sell. When you established a commission, and that fixed the rates, you forced alliances among railroads. for the purpose, not of enhancing the price, but of decreasing the cost. There is the differ- ence. The bagging trust, for instance, is for the purpose of increasing the price of bagaing : the railroad combination is for the purpose of lessening the cost of handling its freight. Lo k at it. The great railroads of this country are forced to recognize conditions as they exis !. They see that no longer can they levy tribute upon the local stations. They see that no one of them can absorb to itself the business of the great Standard Oil Company, or of the great soap manufacturers, or the great manufacturers of any other class. They see, if they ate !) hope for profit in their investment at all, that they must do everything possible, first, to - crease the cost, and secondly, to enhance the volume of business. These are the two great problems presented to every thinking railroad man in the country : 'How can I decrease " e cost, how can I increase my business ?'"
He then explained that the men who controlled these roads had bought them on their faith in Southern development, and depended upon it for fame and fortune.
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Tracing the effect of this railroad alliance on that development, he further said :
"Take the center of that triangle made by Cincinnati, Cairo and Chicago. The center of that triangle will be, in 1890. very near the center of the population of the Union. From it the short line to the sea runs through Georgia or Carolina soil. Every foot you advance further west that fact becomes more and more marked. When you reach Kansas City not only is the shortest line to the sea through Georgia, but if you take the prorating distance of our steam- ship company, which is two hundred and fifty miles, with all railroads with which we connect, we have absolutely the shortest line to New York and Boston. These distances are worthy of note. I will call your attention to only one or two. From St. Louis to New York is 1,065 miles ; to Brunswick, 888 ; to Savannah, 902. From Kansas City to Boston is 1,513 miles ; to Brunswick, 1, 171 ; to Savannah, 1, 18 ;. The route from St. Louis or Kansas City to Boston, by the way of Savannah and the ocean steamship, putting our ocean mileage as is customary at 250 miles, is seventy-six miles shorter than the all rail routes, seventy-eight miles in favor of Savannah. With short lines from the coal regions and the iron regions, and the cotton re- gions of the Southeast why should we not put our products in the markets of the Northwest to better advantage than any other portion of this country ?
"When the Georgia Pacific road is completed to the Mississippi, when, as will be done in the very near future, the Mississippi River is bridged at Memphis, those great Southwestern systems of roads that have been interested heretofore in carrying every particle of the South- western freight around to the north of the Ohio River, will have a direct interest in bringing all of that freight through this section. We have lines that lie below the snow belt. We have lines free from the least obstructions winter and summer. We have lines with less capitaliza- tion. We have the short lines. From Shreveport, a common point for the business of Texas, to Savannah is 895 miles, to New York 1.625 miles. To Atlanta and the interior points of the Southeast the advantage of the South is even more marked. Every reason exists why the great Southwestern and Southeastern systems should be worked in harmony. Give us the great Southwestern systems in close relationship to the Southeastern system, and you create at once the short line to El Paso.
" But why should we stop there. The dream of direct trade between Europe and the South- Atlantic ports is not Utopian. With the short lines to the Northwest, with the short lines to the Southwest, with the vast natural resources of the Southeast, rendering it necessarily the center of great industrial progress, direct trade with Europe must come in the near future."
The speech attracted marked attention both in the committee and from the public. The Atlanta Constitution in publishing it said editorially :
" It is a notable fact that while Mr. Pat. Calhoun was making his speech, which we print this morning, before the railroad committee at Atlanta, Mr. Charles Francis Adams was speak- ing before the railroad commission in New York. Here were the representatives of two of the most famous families in American history, each speaking in his own section on the great in- dustrial topic of the day. Both agreed that the inevitable run of things tended to the consoli- dation of separate railroads into great systems. We do not believe the New England Adams made an abler speech than was made by the young representative of the South.
" Mr. Calhoun's speech is especially significant in this connection because he does not ap- pear as the defender of a railroad system, but representing the idea on which the railroad was organized. It was his brain that first conceived the combination that is under discussion-his earnest work that has at all times helped it forward. No man is more capable, therefore, of speaking with intelligence and authority as to the purpose of this combination in the future, and of the motive for which it was built. As a thoughttul and catuest risumy of one of the most important discussions of the day, made by a man whose every ambition is to build up this section with which his every interest is identified, the speech of Mr. Calhoun deserves a careful reading at the hands of every Georgian." 24*
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As can be seen from the above the position, which Mr. Calhoun holds with his colleagues is one of great influence. He is their trusted counsellor. As soon as the alliance was perfected he was elected general counsel of the Geor- gia Company, and in January, 1889, he was elected the general counsel of the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia.
As a man Mr. Calhoun is marked by strict integrity, great decision of char- acter and purpose, and by his loyalty to his friends. He is a little over six feet in height. In early youth he was very slender, but his later years have made him more robust. What, however, impresses the observer most, is the striking intellectuality of his face. His eyes, which are blue, are extremely piercing, and especially in argument or discussion; he fixes his glance on his hearer with an intensity which seems to read the inner workings of the mind. He possesses a mind of unusual power. It is characterized not merely by the faculty of acute analysis, but by that rarer power, which is the gift of statesmanship, the power of synthesis ; of devising new plans, developing origi- nal thoughts, of perfecting new and complete systems of action. It is at once boldly original and also conservative in its tendency. Original in its conceptions, but cautious and critical in proving them before received as truth. His capacity for resolving a problem into its true elements, and seizing upon the controlling feature of it, is remarkable. While cautious in determining upon a line of conduct, when once resolved, his action is marked by its extreme rapidity and its great firmness. Quick to accept a suggestion and revise a conclusion, or abandon it, when its error is demonstrated, and according to the judgment of those in whom he has confidence, great weight, he is, when con- vinced of the correctness of his opinions, fearless in their maintenance.
Mr. Calhoun is a great student, his favorite studies being the law and all sub- jects bearing on industrial, social, economic and political questions. Prior to the period when his railroad interests demanded so much of his time, he was a great reader on these and kindred topics, and during this later period, scarcely a day has passed that he has not either after nightfall or during the day de- voted one or two hours to study. As a lawyer, Mr. Calhoun is widely read on the principles governing the different branches of jurisprudence. He has always been noted for the intensity with which he devotes himself to any ob- ject which he is pursuing, and this characteristic made him, during the earlier years of his professional life, an arduous student of legal literature. His occu- pations during the last few years have led him to give a great deal of attention to the law of corporations, while his tastes have always made the study of con- stitutional law his pleasure. In the two branches of corporation and constitu- tional law, his reading has been varied and exhaustive, and his information is thorough and exact. Much of the success of his railroad achievements has been due to his superior knowledge of the law governing corporations.
At the age of thirty-two, already one of the managers of the most extensive
Unry B. Tompkins.
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system of railroads in the world, with splendid mental and physical gifts, with an experience rarely attained in a long life, and with his prime yet before him, loving the South with the traditional love of his race, and emulous of aiding in her future prosperity and glory, it is not flattery to predict that Mr. Calhoun will prove one of the leaders in her coming development, and will in the fu- ture not only contribute a large share toward the shaping of her destinies, but occupy a prominent place among her more gifted sons.
T OMPKINS, HENRY, of Atlanta, was born in Barbour county, Ala., in 1845. and is a son of Henry M. and Henrietta Mabiton (Bethune) Tomp- kins. His paternal ancestors were of English descent, and settled in Virginia and afterward removed to South Carolina before the Revolutionary War, in which last named State his father was born and for a time practiced his pro- fession of law. His mother was a native of Georgia, and of Scotch ancestry.
While pursuing his preparatory studies for the purpose of entering the University of South Carolina, he enlisted as a private soldier in the Thirty- ninth Alabama Regiment, Confederate Infantry, then commanded by Colonel Henry D. Clayton, afterwards made a major-general, and who is now presi- dent of the University of Alabama. This regiment served in the Western Army under Generals Bragg, Hood, and Johnston. Some time after joining this command Mr. Tompkins was made adjutant of the regiment, and became captain of one of the companies in that regiment. He was wounded three times, the first time at Chickamauga, again upon the retreat of General Johns- ton below Dallas. The third wound was received in the fights around At- lanta, and for some months rendered him unfit for military duty, as it was through the body and of a very serious nature. Upon recovery he rejoined his command and remained with it until the surrender of General Johnston's army at Greensboro, N. C., in May, 1865.
After the war Mr. Tompkins began the study of law in the office of D. M. Seals, at Clayton, Ala .. and was admitted to the bar in 1866. He commenced the practice of his profession in Alabama, removed to Memphis, Tenn., where he remained about a year and a half, when he returned east to Savannah, Ga. Here in 1875 he was made judge of the Superior Courts of the eastern judicial circuit of Georgia. After remaining upon the bench for more than four years he resigned and returned to the practice of law. In 1881 he was again made judge of the same court, but resigned after one year's service.
In 1883 he removed to Atlanta, where he has since been engaged in a large and lucrative practice About two years ago he was made general coun- sel of the Sheffield and Birmingham Coal, Iron and Railway Company, and in January, 1888, was made vice-president and general manager of this company. He is also counsel for several other corporations. For about eighteen months Mr. Morris Brandon has been associated with him as partner under the legal
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firm name of Tompkins & Brandon. In his profession Mr. Tompkins has been a diligent worker, and has already gained an enviable position among the lead- ing lawyers at the Atlanta bar.
He was married in February, 1882, to Miss Bessie Washington, of Ten- nessee, who died in August, 1887.
R ICHARDS, ROBERT H., son of Robert G. and Sarah (Gilkes) Richards, was born in London, England, in 1830, and was of English descent. His educational advantages were limited, being principally confined to a few years attendance in the schools of his native city. At the age of thirteen he accom- panied his parents to America, settling in Penfield, Green county, Ga. He re- mained with his parents at Penfield about two years, when he began life for him- self in New York City as a clerk. There he remained about two years, and by hard work succeeded in saving a small amount with which he came South and located in Athens, Ga., and for some time thereafter traveled throughout the Southern States selling books. By the most unremitting labor and rigid econ- omy he steadily added to his means, and in 1848 had accumulated sufficient capital to embark in business. In partnership with James McPherson, under the firm name of James McPherson & Co., he established the first bookstore in Atlanta. Their venture proved a success and was continued for two or three years, when Mr. Richards retired from the firm and opened a similar store in La Grange, Ga. In the latter place Mr. Richards continued the busi- ness alone with marked success until the close of the war. He also again be- came a partner of Mr. McPherson in the book business in Atlanta in 1858, under the original firm name, and was thus associated with him when the city was captured by the Federal forces.
Although he carried on business in Atlanta several years prior to the war, his residence was in La Grange, and there he continued to reside until the spring of 1867, when he moved to Knoxville, Tenn., and established the East Tennes- see Book House, with which he was connected for some three years. While residing in Knoxville Mr. Richards, fully convinced of the future development of the railroad interest of the South, purchased a large amount of the stock of the East Tennesse, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, which was then selling less than one-third of its par value. This proved in a few years to be a most fortunate investment, and was the main starting point of the large fortune he subsequently accumulated.
In 1865 with General Alfred Austell and others Mr. Richards aided in the organization of the Atlanta National Bank, and his career in connection with that institution made him best known to the people of this community. He was one of the original stockholders, and from its organization prominently associated with the directorate. He was several times vice-president of the bank and resigned his last time as such officer in July, 1888, but was a director and stockholder at the time of his death.
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In 1872 Mr. Richards removed to Atlanta, where he at that time selected his permanent residence, and here about four years ago he erected on Peaclı- tree street one of the finest private residences in the city.
Mr. Richards's connection with the banking interests of the city did not ab- sorb all of his business energies. He held important interests in a number of successful corporations. . At the time of his death he was a director in the Ex- position Cotton Mills, the Atlanta Home Insurance Company, the Atlanta Guano Company, the Clifton Phosphate Company, the Eagle and Phenix Manufacturing Company of Columbus, and the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad Company. He was also president of the Kenesaw Flouring Mills at Marietta, and a large stockholder in the John P. King Factory at Augusta.
Perhaps his most fortunate single business operation was in connection with the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad. With General Austell and others he purchased a large amount of stock in this road, and when the great railroad boom occurred about eight years ago it is said he realized a profit of a quarter of a million dollars.
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